Prospects in straw disintegration for biogas production

The pretreatment methods for enhancing biogas production from oat straw under study include hot maceration, steam explosion, and pressure shockwaves. The micropore area (9, 55, and 64 m² g^-1) inhibitor formations (0, 15, and 0 mL L^-1) as well as the overall methane yields (67, 179, and 255 CH₄ VS t^-1) were robustly analyzed. It was confirmed that the operating conditions of the steam explosion must be precisely tailored to the substrate. Furthermore, it was beneficial to prepend the hot maceration before the steam explosion and the pressure shockwaves. The second alternative may give increased methane yields (246 in comparison to 273 CH₄ VS t^-1); however, the application of pressure shockwaves still faces limitations for deployment on a commercial scale.